Henri Pélissier Photo Gallery
and Short Biography

Henri Pélissier (January 22, 1889 - May 1, 1935) was the most talented of the racing Pélissier brothers and perhaps France's best rider in the years right after World War One. Francis Pélissier was a capable roadman and Charles was a fearsome sprinter, but it was Henri who won the Tour de France, thrice the Tour of Lombardy, twice Paris-Roubaix and Milan-San Remo.

Against his father's wishes he took up bike racing in 1908 and his talent was soon apparent. By 1910 Henri was winning races.

In late summer of 1911 cycling legend Lucien Petit-Breton invited Henri to race with him in Italy. Petit-Breton's instincts were spot-on, Pélissier won Firenze-Torino-Milano, the Giro di Lombardia (despite being in a crash with Costante Girardengo, earning the wrath of the tifosi) and Milano-Torino.

He served in the French army during the Great War and some think his already unstable personality tendencies were made worse by his time as a soldier.

After the war he continued is winning ways, winning Paris-Roubaix twice and the Tour de France.

Pélissier was unusual in his cerebral approach to his craft. He might be the first roadman to have trained for speed rather than pure endurance. Like Fausto Coppi two decades later, he took his diet and equipment seriously and was probably the most advanced racer of the era.

But, he was Henri Pélissier, a man with a permanent chip on his shoulder. He never hid his contempt for his fellow racers and argued about everything, all the time. This cost him dearly because the man he chose to fight with most often was Henri Desgrange, the father and boss of the Tour de France. To make the Tour supremely difficult, Desgrange implemented a rule book of petty regulations that sorely tested the racers' will to finish. Pélissier spent his days riding the Tour in a state of continual rage, constantly bickering with Desgrange, a man as stubborn as Pélissier. Pélissier quit the Tour twice in protest against Desgrange's rules.

His abandonment in the 1924 Tour is legendary. A famous writer interviewed Henri as he sat in a railroad station cafe drinking hot chocolate. Pélissier complained of the terrible suffering the Tour imposed in the riders and of the drugs the racers took to mitigate their suffering. "We run on dynamite," he said.

In 1923 Henri decided to finish the Tour, no matter how angry he was (and he was always angry). He attacked his teammate Ottavio Bottecchia in stage 12, though Bottecchia was in Yellow. He left Bottecchia far behind that day and took the lead for good.

Pélissier viewed his profession through the lens of class war and thought his fellow riders badly paid, exploited workers. He tried to start a riders' union, but the racers were wary of Pélissier and feared angering their sponsors and race promoters.

Henri's wife Léonie killed herself with a pistol in 1933. Two years later, during a terrible row, he threatened his paramour Camille Tharault with a knife. Camille shot Pélissier with the same pistol Léonie has used to commit suicide. Camille pled self-defense and was given a year's suspended jail sentence.